Internet relay chat (IRC) has traditionally been utilized for communicating in real-time. However, IRC has become a medium for malware to execute and proliferate. Techniques have been employed for identifying and redirecting IRC traffic for preventing the execution and proliferation of malware utilizing IRC, but unfortunately, such techniques have exhibited various limitations.
Just by way of example, IRC traffic has conventionally been identified (e.g. for the redirection thereof) based on ports predetermined to be a standard for use in communicating IRC traffic. For example, firewall rules have generally been implemented which block IRC traffic on the predetermined ports. Identifying IRC traffic in the foregoing manner, however, is oftentimes circumvented by malware using a non-standard port. There is thus a need for addressing these and/or other issues associated with the prior art.